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Aakar Patel, group editor-in-the-chief, ‘Divya Bhaskar’ has quit, only to become the consulting editor for the Bhaskar Group and ‘Mid-Day’ publications. He has also started his own company called Hill Road Media
Aakar Patel, group editor-in-chief, ‘Divya Bhaskar’, has stepped down from his current role after a short stint there. He had joined ‘Divya Bhaskar’ in December, last year. Patel has now started his own media venture called Hill Road Media.
Apart from spearheading this new endeavour, he will serve as a consulting editor for all the publications from the Bhaskar Group and ‘Mid-Day’. He joined ‘Mid-Day’ as consulting editor on October 15. As a consulting editor, his mandate will be to consult both the companies on growth and editorial strategy.
Hill Road Media was established in October this year and currently specialises in creating content for entertainment and sports websites. This new initiative by Patel will focus on three vital aspects, namely, customised content creation, contract publishing and offshore publishing outsourcing.
Hill Road Media has bagged the contract from STAR India for creating content for the ICC Champions Trophy website (www.iccchampionstrophy.com) and also for its entertainment arm, indya.com. It also provides content to Big 92.7 FM, the radio venture by Adlabs.
His core team at Hill Road Media comprises of Sushmita Sen, former editor of ‘Sunday Mid-Day’, Tapan Joshi, ex-‘Times of India’ and SK Sham, ex-Reuters.
About his new project, Patel says, “As convergence of content is becoming the key driver, there is an opportunity for specialised content providers.” He also says that he is in the process of creating an editorial hub with specialised services for the company’s current as well as prospective partners.
Before moving to ‘Divya Bhaskar’, Patel was the group editor-in-chief of ‘Mid-Day’.
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